OK, let's review:
- Rush Limbaugh's greeting to our new President was "I hope you fail."
- Republicans did their best to make the health care bill his "Waterloo."
- They have vowed not to cooperate on anything.
- Mitch McConnell says their top priority is making sure Obama doesn't win reelection.
- Pretty much everyone agrees that the Dems' "shellacking" in the last election was mostly due to the lousy economy.
- Pretty much everyone agrees that if the economy isn't better, or at least rapidly recovering, in 2012, Obama's chances for reelection are dim.
From this it follows that if the Republicans can prevent economic recovery, they'll have their best shot at achieving their No. 1 goal.
Here's how the Dems can fight back.
As Paul Krugman notes, the current Republican fake outrage about the Fed's attempts to bolster the economy with Quantitative Easing isn't because they think it won't work—it's because they're afraid it will work.
And that's the message the Dems need to get out loud and clear to the public: Republicans have no interest in improving the economy. They are blocking Democratic efforts to make things better.
In a word, they need to inoculate the public against the next two years of little progress, and clearly show where the blame lies.
If they can accomplish this, they have a fighting chance in 2012.
(I just wish that "fight" wasn't a foreign concept to most of them.)